Into Another

How to cook on fire, carry water, 
light with candles, keep bags close 
to her side in crowds, use a knife 
to clean her nails when hitchhiking
(just so the drivers could see she
had it), and use her teeth to get the fruit
off mango pits—my mother
learned how to do all of this. Also, 
how to find a money changer, watch
the men on corners calling, Colones,
and choose one with a good rate,
one to trust. The little I may know
as well as her is the hanging feeling 
of the moment when she handed a man 
her money. The waiting for him to run or
begin passing bills back. The uttering of  
Change me. Into a woman 
who can live in this world.

Rose McLarney | I Saw
Contents | Mudlark No. 51 (2013)